Hồ Xuân Hương Tác Phẩm và Lời Bình

by Hồ Xuân Hương, Tuấn Thành (editor), Anh Vũ (editor)

210 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2017

About the author

Hồ Xuân Hương (胡春香; 1772–1822) was a Vietnamese poet born at the end of the Lê Dynasty. She grew up in an era of political and social turmoil – the time of the Tây Sơn rebellion and a three-decade civil war that led to Nguyễn Ánh seizing power as Emperor Gia Long and starting the Nguyen Dynasty. She wrote poetry using Chữ Nôm (Southern Script), which adapts Chinese characters for writing demotic Vietnamese. She is considered to be one of Vietnam's greatest classical poet. Xuân Diệu, a prominent modern poet, dubbed her "The Queen of Nôm poetry".

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Trang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll be writing in English because if you're Vietnamese, you should dive right in to the book. There should be no hesitation!

Ho Xuan Huong is a Viet lady and poet born in the eighteenth century in the Le dynasty in Vietnam (then, Dai Viet - "Great Viet"). This is one badass of a female figure in Vietnamese literature and history. She spoke out pointedly, cheekily, and daringly against the upper hypocritical class, comprising mostly men, in Vietnam back then. But has a soft spot for women, unsuprisingly, because she was one miserable woman for most of her life. Her mind beyond the constraints of time and history, she finds little solace in contemporary relatives and friends. Being a third wheel multiple times in her life, she expressed not only agony for herself, but sisterhood for women who would most likely consider Huong rivalry in love.

In Vietnam now, there is still plenty room for gender equity improvement (where sanitary pads are not deemed "unnecessary goods" and banned from shipping in times of COVID lockdown). But I bet Ho Xuan Huong will have a greater chance of finding someone who understands her if she lives here, now.